Compact discs, widely known as CD, are placed into containers or cases which include a base box-like element and a cover hinged to the base element along an edge.
Compact disc packaging machines include storage devices for the CD cases, formed by elongated storage modules, arranged horizontally and/or vertically.
In case of vertically arranged storage modules, the cases are moved due to the gravity force, while in case of horizontal storage modules, the cases are usually moved by conveying belts.
The autonomy of the above mentioned storage devices, both horizontal and vertical, and therefore of the whole packaging machine, including these storage devices, can be increased by providing more modules, arranged side by side, which perform cyclically their feeding operation by complex commutation systems.
The most important disadvantages of these storage devices, including singular modules or a plurality of modules suitably arranged side by side, derive from their small autonomy, in the first case, and in the second one, from difficulty to switch from a single module to another one. Switch form one module to the following one is necessary to increase reliability and reduce dimensions of the storage device.
The continuous increase of the CD use, due to the progressive expansion of data processing and audio-visual media market, requires packaging machines which must work with very high speed and productive capacity, not to extend delivery terms, and therefore, they need storage devices with bigger and bigger autonomy.